Legislator Uncertainty, Legislative Control, and the Delegation of Legislative Power

Abstract

On May 2, 1878, the House Commerce Committee favorably reported a bill regulate interstate commerce and to prohibit unjust discrimination by common carriers. Known as the Reagan bill, after the chairman, John Reagan, of Texas, H.R. 3547 outlawed rebates and other forms of discrimination and included a restrictive longand short-haul clause. The bill did not establish a federal commission to enforce the law, however, providing only that aggrieved shippers could bring suit in the federal courts and, if successful, could recover triple damages. To supply additional enforcement incentives railroads were to be fined a minimum of $1,000 for each offense, this amount to be divided between the government and the informer. After lengthy debate and the addition of a provision outlawing pools (agreements to split traffic or revenue) the Reagan bill passed the Democratic House, only to disappear without a trace in the Republican Senate.l Senate inaction stalled the regulatory drive until 1885. In that year the Republican Senate adopted a bill reported by a select committee chaired by